Safety guard



y 6, 1941- I w. H. SEARJEANT 2,240,915

' SAFETY GUARD I Filed Nov. 16, 1938 2 Sheets-Sheet l 25%?23 FIGS H66 lINVENTOR y 1941- 'w. H. SEARJEANT 2;240,915

SAFETY GUARD Filed Nov. 16, 1932; 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 11v VENTOR Wu Fan 7SEAFJEA/YT a A T TOR -BYI Patented May 6, 1941 M? OFFICE 15 SAFETY GUARDWilfrid H. Searjeant, RochesteigN, Y," assignor to Taylor-Shantzlna,R.ochester,N. Y.', a corporationof New York Application November 16,1938, Serial No. 240,773

' 6 Claims. (-01. 14- 615) This invention relates to safety guards forpresses, shears etc. and has for its principal object to provide asafety guard which will efficiently, guard both small and large dangerzones on machines having operating memberswith uniform or variable longmovements, such as hydraulic presses, compressed air operated presses,toggle presses, percussion presses, shears etc.

A further object of this invention is to provide a safety guard whichmay be made to operate during any part of the movement of an operatingmember.

- Another object of this invention is to provide a safety guard-thatwill force the operators hands or arms out of the danger zone in advanceof the closing movement of the operating member and then form anefficient protective barrier during the closing movement.

All these and other objects and attendant advantages of this inventionwill become more clearly apparent from the detailed descriptionthereofwhich follows, reference being had to the accompanying drawingsin which Figure 1' is a frontv elevation of a hydraulic press equippedwith the safety guard.

Figure 2 is a vertical section taken on the line 2-2 in Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a horizontal section taken on the line 33 in Figure 1.

V Figure 4 is a horizontal section taken on the line 4-4 in Figure 1.

Figure 5 is an enlarged front elevation of the safety guard and itsactuating member.

Figure 6 is a horizontal section taken on the line B6 in Figure 5.

The safety guard, forming the subject matter of my present invention, isespecially adapted for use on presses, shears etc. in which theoperating member has a long and not too fast movement. Any form of pressmay have the guard attached thereto and for illustrative purposes I haveshown and described it in connection with a hydraulic press in which ahydraulic ram I operates a movable bed 2 toward a stationary'head 3 tosubject the material to be operated upon to the pressure of the ram thrusuitable forming dies 4, 4. The press has the base 5 and on this baseare supported the uprights 6, 6 which adjustably support the head 3 bymeans of the nuts 1, l and guide the bed 2 in its movement toward andaway from the head. To prevent injury to the operator of the press hemust remove his hands or have them forceably removed from between thedies on their closing movement or keep his hands fromentering betweenthe dies during the closing movement thereof. 3

These protective functions are efiicientlyperformed by my safety guardwhich comprises a number of pairs of levers 8, 8 which are pivotedtogether at the middle at 9, 9 and hinged to one another at the ends atl0, ill to form an expansible and contractible gate-like structure asillustrated in Figure 5. The bottom end of one of the pair of levers 8at the right hand end of the gate is pivotally mounted on the pivot studll carried by the lower end of the supporting memher. or upright I2 andthe upper end of the other of the pair of levers 8 at the right hand endof the gate is pivotally connected to the arm I3 which in turn ismountedto swing on the pivot stud I4 carried by the bracket 15. Thelatter is mounted on the side of the supporting member l2 so as to forma part thereof.

To operate the levers so as to have'them extend in the mannerillustrated in dotted lines in Figure 5, an extension arm I6 is attached.to' the lever end pivoted on the pivot stud H and the movement of thisextension causes all of the levers to swing on their center pivots andforce the. hinged ends apart or bring them together to expand orcontract the gate formed by them- The upper end of one and the lower endof the other of the pair of levers 8 at the free end of the gate havethe guide blocks H and I8 pivoted thereon. Each of these blocks isgrooved on the inside at [9 with a cover plate 28 held over the groove.The guard arm 2| extends thru these grooves and is normally clamped intothe block I 8 by its cover plate 20 to fixedly support it thereon whilethe guide block I! is allowed to freely slide up and down on the guardarm. In this way the movement of the guide block ll on the free movingend of the gate and the swinging arm 13 on the stationary end thereofpermits the levers of the gate to move in unison. A stop pin 22, whichprojects from the supporting member, keeps the swinging arm I 3 fromswinging too far so that the return movement of the gate from itsextended position will not be delayed or made difficult by the alignmentof the pivotal connection between the arm l3 and the lever 8 with thecenter of rotation of this arm and lever.

The free end of the guard is guided and held rigid in a vertical planeby the guard arm 2|. For this purpose this guard arm extends into theguide slot 23A provided between the guide rails 23, 23. These rails aresupported at one end on the supporting member or upright l2 and at theother endby a similar supporting member 24.

travel of the guard is short and the support at one end by thesupporting member I2 is sufficient to hold the guide rails rigid. Theguard arm 2| in its movement in the guide slot 23A thus guides the gatestructure in a straight line movement and by its engagement with thesides of the guard rails assists in holding the gate structure rigid.

The guard arm is longer than the height of the gate structure and, asabove pointed out, is adjustable in the guide block [8 so that it can bemade to variably project below the gate structure The latter support maybe dispensed with if the member or upright 12 and its companion 2d areprovided with spaced holes 32, 32 for the bolts 33, 33 to pass therethruand clamp the uprights to the head with the guard properly locatedrelative to the danger zone between the dies in the press. r

In presses where the table 2 is stationary and the head 3 is moved bythe ram, the mounting of the guard is simply reversed by fastening thesupporting member l2 to the stationary table and the bracket 29 with itscam rod 21 to the I movable head.

in order to protect any danger area below the V gate structure fromwhich the hand or arm. of the operator must be displaced on'theoperation of the guard. The guard arm is also adjusted so that its lowerendextends below the top of the bed 2 and is located in front thereof.This keeps the guard arm and gate in a vertical plane in forced towardthe dies.

For the operation of the guard the extension arm I6 carries the bracket26 which is: swiveled to the outer end thereof and is provided with a'pair of parallel rollers 25A suitably spaced from each other. The camrod 21 projects thru the bracket 26 between the rollers 26A and is movedup and down therein for the operation of the safety guard aswillpresently appear. The cam rod has a uniform, square cross sectionthruout its length and is bent to provide the angular cam 28intermediate the ends thereof.

The camurod is adjustably clamped in place in the bracket 29 which isattached to the moving table 2 of the press. For this purpose the freeend of the bracket is provided with the channel 29A to have the cam rodslidably held in place therein by means of the cover plate 30. Setscrews 3| in the side of thebracket are adapted to engage the cam rodand adjustably hold it fixed therein.

The cam section in the cam rod is so arranged that the upper straightsection of the rod is thereby laterally offset from the lower straightsection of the rod so that on the vertical movement of the cam rodtheroller bracket is moved laterally and swings the arm l6 for theoperation of the levers 8 of the guard. The movement of the upperstraight section of the cam rod thru the roller bracket holds the arm 16stationary in the position in which the gate structure of the guard isheld contracted for the inoperative'position of the guard. The movementof the angular cam section 28 of the cam rod thru the roller bracketcauses the bracket to turn and be moved laterally to swing the arm l6for the operation of the gate structure of the guard and the movement ofthe lower straight section of the cam rod thru the roller bracket keepsthe arm l6 fixed with the guard ini ts operated position.

The cam rod can thus be adjusted in its supporting bracket to cause itscam sec'tio'nto ope ate the guard at'the beginning of the movement ofthe table 2 or at any point in its movement thereafter. The guard maythus be immediately operated and held operated during substantially theentire movement of thetable 2 or the guard may be held inoperative atthe beginning of the movement of the table andthen operated and heldoperated for the remainder ofits movem ent For the purpose of verticallyadjusting the entire guard between the mov'able table 2 and; the fixedhead 3 of the press, the supporting '20 front of the bed and prevents itfrom being Of course the safety guard shown and described may bechanged, and variations. may be required under certain conditions,therefore,

while some of the constructional details are deemed preferable and Ihave shown and described them specifically, it is to be understood thatI- do not limit myself to such precise construction, but consider that Iam at liberty to make such changes and alterations as fairly come withinthe scope of the appended claims.

I claim: 1 r

1. A safety guard comprising a series of levers pivotally held togetherin pairs and hingedly connected to form an expansible and contractiblegate, fixed pivotal supporting means for the free end of one of the pairof levers at one end of .the gate, movable supporting means for the freeend of the other lever of the said pair of levers of the said end of thegate, an arm extension on said lever end held supported on said fixedpivotal supporting means, a movable cam rod engaging 'said arm extensionand means for adjustably holding said cam rod for the operation of saidarmextension.

2.'A safety guard comprising a series of levers pivotally held togetherin pairs and hingedly connected to form an expansible and contractiblegate, fixed pivotal supporting means'for the free end of one of the pairof levers at one end of the gate, movable supporting means for the freeend of the other lever'of the said pair of levers of the said endof thegate, an arm extensionon said lever end held supported on said fixedpivotal supporting means, a longitudinally movable cam rod, straightsections forming the 'upper and lower portions of said rod, an angularsection intermediate the upper and lower straight sec tions so as tooffset one straight section from the other and means carried by said'armextension for engagement by said cam rod to have the cam rod hold saidarm-extension in an inoperative position during part of, its movement,operate said arm during another part of its movement and hold the arm inan operated. position during the remainder of its movement.

3. A safety guard as set forth in claim 2 including means for adjustablyholding said cam. rod for permitting change of the movement of said armextension by said cam rodl. A safety guard as set forth in vclaim'lincluding supporting blocks carried by the ends of of the machine; 'a'series of leverspivotally held together "in pairs and hingedly connected"to form an expansible and contraotible gate, means for pivotallysupporting the free end of one of the pair of levers at one end of thegate to said supporting member, a link mounted to swing on saidsupporting member and pivotally connected to the end of the other leverof the said pairof levers at the end of the gate, a stop on saidsupporting member for engagement by said link when the gate formed bythe series of leversis in a predetermined expanded position; a pair ofparallel guide members carried by said supporting member, a guard armcarried by the ends of the levers of the pair of levers at the oppositeend of the gate, said guard arm projecting between said guide members soas to guide said guard arm and said levers.

6. A safety guard as set forth in claim 5 including an extension arm onthe lever pivotally supported on said supporting member, a bracketswiveled on said extension arm, a cam rod movable thru said bracket, andmeans for adjustably holding said cam rod on the movable operatingmember of the machine to move therewith and cause said cam rod tooperate said gate on the movement of said movable operating member.

WILFRID H. SEARJEANT.

